The present disclosure relates generally to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and to navigation systems thereof for providing routing selections based on user-entered destination information. Because electric vehicles (EVs) have only recently been introduced in mainstream market channels, electric vehicle charging infrastructure is limited in the United States and elsewhere. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) include hybrid technology allowing the vehicle to operate using fossil-fuel for propulsion and battery charging, and some electric vehicle designs provide an on-board internal combustion engine dedicated to driving a generator to charge the EV battery. If on-board propulsion or charging facilities are unavailable and the EV presently has a low state of charge (SOC) for the electric propulsion system, the vehicle must be brought to a charging station before the battery is completely depleted. Many modern vehicles are equipped with on-board navigation systems with global position system (GPS) capabilities. A user enters a desired destination and the navigation system determines a driving route from the current vehicle position to the destination. These systems typically select the route based on shortest distance or soonest arrival time. Advanced vehicle navigation systems obtain road congestion information and may modify the route selection according to such road conditions in order to implement a shortest distance or shortest travel time strategy. However, conventional navigation systems and travel time minimization type route selection techniques do not optimally accommodate the specific needs of BEVs. For instance, if the vehicle battery requires charging, the vehicle must be brought to a charging station. If no charging station is available or within reachable range, the vehicle may go into a power down mode with reduced acceleration and speed, and will eventually stop, in which case the vehicle should be directed off the road ahead of time. Moreover, the vehicle battery may become damaged if such power down events are repeated many times. Thus, there is a need for improved vehicle navigation systems and route techniques for BEVs to mitigate power down situations and to facilitate routing the vehicle to the desired destination without intervening stops for charging.